O Pioneers! Characters

Well folks, there's no doubt about it: Alexandra Bergson is the hero—or heroine, rather—of O Pioneers! In fact, it's difficult to analyze any of the characters in this novel without somehow ref...

Though Carl is undeniably a Main Character—he's Alexandra's Main Squeeze, after all—we don't feel like he garners a whole lot of attention. We hardly feel like we even know him. He's always eit...

Alexandra might not get along too well with her brothers, Lou and Oscar, but when it comes to Emil Bergson, well, things are different. Emil is Alexandra's golden child (er, brother). She sees his...

Marie is one of those characters—effervescent, attractive, optimistic—who almost never makes out of a novel alive. No exceptions here. A tough ol' country like the Nebraskan frontier just i...

In the simple version of O Pioneers!, Frank is just the bad guy. That's usually what comes of being a murderer, right? In the more complicated version, though, Franks appears something like a v...

One thing seems true about "Crazy Ivar:" he's not really all that crazy. Is he a loner? Yes. Is he eccentric, with some wacky ideas about nature and religion and feet? Definitely. But hey, gues...

Let's get one thing straight: we don't like these guys. And guess what? There's nothing wrong with that. O Pioneers! straight up portrays Alexandra's brothers as bad people. Even when the n...

Now, we know that Lou Bergson gets a bad rap in O Pioneers! Not surprisingly, this also rubs off on his wife, Annie Lee. If Lou is portrayed as embittered and resentful about his social standing, t...

Amédée is one of those characters, like Marie, you just know will kick the bucket before the end of the novel. Why? He's just too darn happy. First he's enthusiastic about his new marriag...

In some ways, the character of John Bergson dominates the whole of O Pioneers! And yet, he's dead before the start of Part 2. Well, that's nothing new—Shakespeare's got something similar going on...

Mrs. Bergson belongs to the beginning of O Pioneers!, when things are looking pretty bad for the Bergson family, and well, for everyone else, too. After a few descriptions of her character, we...